Today we announced the acquisition of Word Sell, Inc., my content marketing services firm. I’m excited to be part of the Straight North team, as the move makes sense from every possible angle.
When I started talking to corporations about blogging and online community building back in 2005, I was met with a lot of blank stares … and worse. Typical reactions included –
"Blogging won’t work for our business."
"Blogging is just fad."
"Our current marketing programs work just fine."
Fast forward to today. Neilsen reports that social networking and blogging sites accounted for 17% of all time spent on the internet (August 2009). Time spent on social networks is growing at three times the overall internet rate. Facebook, a network barely on the business radar a few short years ago, now boasts more than 350 million users.
Business marketers have responded. A new report from eMarketer indicates that U.S. marketers spent an estimated $1.2 billion advertising on social networks in 2009. That figure is expected to grow by more than 7% this year. And companies are doing much more than advertising. Social media engagement on corporate blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are fast becoming staples of every serious marketing program.
The business community has gone from skeptical to enthusiastic in a very short time. Right now, companies are discovering that social media can’t be separated from other marketing activities. And this is one reason I’m so excited to be here.
Straight North’s expertise in strategy and SEO fit perfectly with what is needed to craft an effective social media program. Without a clear strategy, social media consumes a lot of time and produces few results. Without careful attention to SEO, even a well strategized program will achieve only a fraction of its potential.
In my view, being able to cover all the bases for clients is now essential. Programs must be carefully, meticulously integrated or they will fall short. This wasn’t necessarily true a year or two ago. You could put up a blog and let ‘er rip. There weren’t that many ways to share content, and not that many ways for potential customers to search for it.
For better or worse, business communication has grown – and grown complex. How are you responding?
